Afghan legislators call for change in election body to avoid fraud

Afghan legislators call for change in election body to avoid fraudKabul  - A group of Afghan parliamentarians warned on Thursday that the fraud that marred the August 20 election will be repeated in the runoff unless top members of election commission are replaced.

Around 1 million phony ballots cast in the first round of the election were thrown out of President Hamid Karzai's tally, pushing his share of vote to below the 50 per cent needed for an outright victory and forcing him into a runoff election with his top rival Abdullah Abdullah.

The Independent Election Commission, a body that conducted the election, and is widely accused of working in favour of the incumbent, has set a two-man runoff for November 7.

A group of a dozen parliamentarians, who represent The New Way Political Party, warned on Thursday that the same level of fraud would take place during the runoff, unless there is a change in the leadership of the IEC, whose six-member-panel has been appointed by President Karzai.

"Everybody knows that they are loyal to Karzai and were involved in fraud," Ahmad Behzad, one of the legislators, told a press conference in Kabul. "With the current combination in (IEC's) leadership, we will not have a just election and the fraud will take place again."

Behzad said that the group supported Abdullah's candidacy in the first round of the elections, and consulted Abdullah about their new stance on the IEC, but insisted that he was not speaking on behalf of the former foreign minister.

Abdullah, who had repeatedly accused the IEC of co-engineering the fraud during the first round, also said on Wednesday that his team will set certain conditions "to avoid widespread fraud" during the second round. He said he would announce the details of his conditions in coming days.

The United Nations in Afghanistan, which was initially also blamed for being biased in favour of Karzai, has said that 200 field officers, or more than half of the vote coordinators, had been dismissed and new employees were being recruited in order to avoid the repeat of the vote fabrications.

Azizullah Ludin, chairman of IEC, rejected allegations against his commission on Wednesday and vowed that election staff would be fired and even prosecuted if enough evidence was found against them.

While the fresh vote is intended to restore the credibility of the polls and end the two-month political crisis in the county, analysts believe the lack of assurance for transparency and security of the new polls would keep a large number of voters from polling stations and lead to a lower turnout than the 38 per cent in the first round.

Taliban insurgents conducted more attacks on August 20 than any other day since the ouster of their regime in late 2001. The rebel group is adamant to disrupt any process supported by US and its allies in the country.

Nearly 200,000 Afghan security personnel and more than 100,000 NATO-led international troops will provide security for the fresh polls.(dpa)